Clean Up Aisle 4
Responsible gambling advocates are racking up wins and receiving far more funding than ever before. So why is so little changing?
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Alan Feldman offers solutions to clean up responsible gambling research.
NEWS: Florida sports betting moves a step closer after the DC Court of Appeals denies West Flagler’s request for a rehearing en banc.
NEWS: Penn-ESPN isn’t playing for second place. “We’d expect to be able to compete for the top spot over time,” CEO Jay Snowden said.
VIEWS: A walk around the post-COVID casino floor highlights a change in land-based gambling philosophy.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: A misguided parlay and a serious cyberattack.
STRAY THOUGHTS: A few more thoughts on the responsible gambling discourse.
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Responsible Gambling Discourse Needs More Heretics
When Alan Feldman talks, I listen.
I first met Feldman at a NCLGS conference in Boston (actually, it was in Newton, but in Mass, you’re either from Boston or Western Mass) way back in 2016. He speaks clearly, knowledgeably, and with an understanding of the bigger picture that is so often lacking in this industry.
A former MGM executive, Feldman is a distinguished fellow at the International Gaming Institute, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and chairman emeritus of the International Center for Responsible Gaming.
In a GGB article, he identified the current issues in gambling research [bold mine]:
“Some of the research that is used to justify policies and programs across the United States and around the world is woefully inadequate to effectively do the job... a concern of mine for many years has been the fact that there are any number of academic and commercial studies around the world that use small numbers of subjects such that no one can derive any meaningful benefit from the results.”
This is an issue that I have raised many times. People say we need to do X, with no evidence that X works. X merely sounds good. Or they continue to cling to solutions from 1988 rather than looking to the options available in 2023.
As responsible gambling-problem gambling gets more attention and more funding, it’s imperative that it actually makes a difference. The bare minimum was fine when the budgets were bare bones. Now, it’s time to produce results.
Feldman makes several strong recommendations for researchers to get the ball rolling:
There needs to be some form of consensus on terms, their definition, and proper use. Among these are Harm, Problem Gambling, Responsible Gambling, and Gaming or Gambling.
There should be an agreed-upon minimum standard on the number of subjects necessary to derive “meaningful results” among any given population.
Stakeholders on all sides (including the media) should cite the number of test subjects before expressing any conclusions as to the results of any given study, i.e., “In a study of (14) subjects, the authors found….”
… Research should be clearly identified: academic, commercial, or government.
Policymakers must test their programs and policies to ensure efficacy. If programs don’t work, move on. There’s no shame in this; it’s the right thing to do.
I would put an extreme emphasis on numbers 1, 4, and 5. And I would add one more: Everyone needs to stop playing with numbers and cherry-picking data to reach their preferred conclusions. We need way more honesty and transparency and fewer attention-grabbing, clickbait headlines and quotes from RG advocates.
I’m also glad to see Feldman and others pushing back against the established orthodoxy. RG-PG discussions are stagnant and, by their own metrics, ineffective.
Florida Sports Betting Scores Another Legal Victory
Sports betting could return to Florida as soon as next week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied a request for a rehearing en banc in the ongoing case of Florida sports betting.
West Flagler, the plaintiff in the case, now has 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court (or take its case to state courts), and in the meantime, the Seminole Tribe could choose to relaunch its Hard Rock mobile sports betting app.
As attorney Daniel Wallach tweeted, “Next step: the issuance of the mandate in 7 days. That is thought to be the green light for the relaunch of sports betting in Florida. But West Flagler can file a motion to stay the issuance of the mandate to enable SCOTUS review. It has until Dec. 11 to file a SCOTUS petition.”
Attorney Jeff Ifrah called this “the last barrier” to Florida sports betting, perhaps expecting the Seminole Tribe to relaunch its app regardless of West Flagler’s next move.
You can read a solid, straight-to-the-point write-up of the situation at Sports Handle.
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Penn Shoots for the Stars
At last week’s Bank of America gaming and leisure investor day in New York, Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden said that neither Penn nor ESPN formed their sports betting partnership to “be in fourth, fifth, or sixth place.”
As reported by Earnings+More, Snowden noted that the company would be playing catchup, but “We’re launching this to be a real top player; that’s the focus for 2024 and 2025. You know, you should expect us to be making that turn from breakeven and starting to go positive.”
Snowden also said sports betting was a priority for ESPN, and the partnership would leverage the integration of ESPN Bet into TV and digital content without being “jammed down people’s throats.”
Others at the BoA event disagreed. As E+M reports, betMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said, “None of the competitors on the horizon, including Fanatics Sportsbook and bet365 as well as ESPN Bet, kept him up at night.”
Pundits are also split. As I previously reported, Alpha Advisors Lloyd Danzig told SportsHandle, “PENN will be a winner if they leverage ESPN into something truly unique and differentiated, beyond traditional affiliate marketing activations.”
And on the other side of the coin, “I would bet this deal gets terminated in three years for a lack of market share,” JohnWallStreet said. “It’ll be too expensive for PENN if they’re seeing the projected market share gains [or lack thereof].”
The Changing Casino Floor
Land-based casino trends are fun to follow and almost always revolve around slot machines. Casinos are like AI; they learn and adjust in real time. The current adjustment is removing poor-performing and/or older machines - quality over quantity.
In the 1990s, the general consensus was to put a slot machine anywhere one would fit. How many slots you could boast was a major selling point. During the Poker Boom, banks of slots were removed to make space for suddenly popular poker rooms. When the Boom fizzled, the slots returned from mothball.
Then along came COVID. Casinos reopened with new protocols in place, which meant more space. Even with the protocols and three years post lockdowns, visitation is still down.
“The pause allowed everyone to do things like rearrange their floors from a straight line to one with pods, to maybe fill a similar space with fewer machines but provide more enticing space for customers to walk through,” Eilers & Krejcik’s Phil Bernard told US Bets (this is a terrific article I highly recommend reading). “You create a better viewing experience for the consumer, a more effective merchandising experience between the operator and consumer, exposing them to a better range of machines if navigating the floor.”
Seas of slot machines (often devoid of human life) aren’t the mood the casino wants. Nor do older, rarely used machines collecting dust in a corner signal a thriving business.
By removing some of their inventory of slots, casinos have also cleared up space for other offerings, whether it’s proven games or trials or perhaps a new bar or restaurant.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Speaking of cleanups, DraftKings made a bewildering choice to highlight a 9/11-inspired parlay. As one X/Twitter user posted:
Not surprisingly, gambling Twitter had questions, as seen in the quote retweets.
However, not everyone saw it as warranting job loss or regulatory scrutiny.
So I don’t fully understand the issue everyone seems to have with the Draft Kings promo. Is it the naming? Is it the use of the event for profit? Does it just feel gross? … I’ve just seen a lot of “Awful! Fire everyone!” responses and the marketer in me is curious as to why this one has struck such a universal nerve. I’m not trolling here.
DraftKings later removed the parlay, per Sports Handle, and apologized on X.
And yet another spill to clean up, as MGM is dealing with a significant cyberattack.
Stray Thoughts
My current thoughts on responsible gambling are mixed. A lot of progress has been made, but there’s also more money than ever floating around. That’s a good thing in theory, but it also tends to find its way to the loudest voices and, dare I say, the best marketers.
At some point this month, my Friday feature column will focus on the issues I see in the RG space, and I’ll try to offer some actual solutions - I know, a novel idea.